I have two questions.. one I didn't see anywhere else on the board.. the other, little bits and pieces are everywhere..

1 - which way does coolant flow through the heater control valve?

2 - if I want to get rid of the valve, what's the best way?

 

Answer to question #2 : Just remove it from the heater hose, and put in a new hose, or splice in a shunt pipe in its place. And tape up, or plug the vacuum line that used to go to it. I just did that on my daily driver. The valve was rusted and always open and was leaking.

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88 GTA 5.7 TPI Charcoal Grey Bone Stock except for loose muffler which makes it a bit louder than normal.

 

The heater valve gets coolant from the throttle body if you haven't done the TB coolant bypass yet. If you have, then the coolant will come to the heater valve from the lower intake manifold. From there, there's a hose going to the firewall. That hose goes to the heater core. When the vacuum control from the climate controls are set on "hot" then coolant flows from the lower manifold to the TB to the heater valve, to the heater core, and back into the block from there. If the heater in the car isn't on, then the coolant flows from the manifold to the TB to the valve and then to the lower hose that will take the coolant back down to the water pump. At least that's what it looked like to me. So, if you want to get rid of the valve, then you can totally ditch the top hose, and just install a coupler from the TB coolant hose to the lower heater valve hose that goes into the water pump. And remember, if you've done the TB coolant bypass, the hose going into the valve will come from the lower intake manifold.